Building Food Communities: Farm Management Schemes within Organic PGS; Survey and Analysis in Soc Son, Hanoi, Vietnam

Summary

Demand is rising for organic vegetables in Vietnam. This poses many challenges for small-scale rural farmers who supply the Hanoi markets. Strict third party certification is well beyond their reach, both in terms of cost and technical ability. Organic participatory guarantee systems (PGS) offer an alternative through peer-review and social control, supporting appropriate farming practices, local market development, and social cohesion (Zanasi and Venturi 2008). PGS is based on civil society (Fonseca et. al, 2008), and ensures agro-biodiversity conservation and livelihood security by recognizing the merits of traditional practices and customs (Darlong 2008). PGSs are context specific and the systems vary greatly, but all propose collective efforts for marketing and certification of organic products. The purpose of this study was to determine how PGS farmers manage collective work and decision-making in land-use planning when they share collective organic land.